Jesse James Claims He Was Abused By His Father

By PopEater Staff Posted May 26th 2010 07:13AM

Jesse James saved the worst for last in his first interview since his marriage to Sandra Bullock fell apart, telling ABC's 'Nightline' that he was the victim of abuse as a child. "I was a terrorized kid," he said. The former reality star said he entered rehab earlier this year for sex addiction and anger management, but mostly needed to deal with his childhood, which he claims was filled with beatings at the hands of his father. He told ABC's Vicki Mabrey that memories of the alleged abuse influenced his self-destructive decisions.

"I grew up with a huge amount of shame and fear and abandonment on my shoulders from a very young age, and I think, you know, the way my mind rationalized [cheating], 'Well, you know, I might as well do whatever I can to like run her off cause she is going to find out what I am anyway and leave me anyway,'" James said.

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He said all his cheating stemmed from his "emotional shortcomings," as ABC put it.

"The struggle within myself for the things that I did ... to damage marriage and my life and everything else, it's all me," James said. "I'm doing it because, you know, I've basically never felt good enough for anyone."

James said he went into rehab with a "bit of an ego," but after a few days, "I realized, 'Wow, I'm kind of more messed up than most of the people here.' It was like peeling an onion. Every day it was a new revelation about myself and the things I've been doing," he said. "I cried more in rehab in the last 30 days than I have in my whole life. No BS. That's the truth."

After talking with counselors about his memories of abuse, he began to realize its impact on him.

"Bike builder, 'Monster Garage' TV star, all that stuff is a huge smokescreen so that people won't see that I'm a scared, abused kid, a seven-year-old," James said. "He beat my ass pretty good a bunch of times ... I just remember, like, clinched teeth, strained-neck look on his face," James said. "My whole childhood, I never had a chance to be a kid. ... I was always scared."

James' father, Larry James, strongly denied the allegations of abuse in an e-mail to ABC.

James said he "knew it was horrible" to cheat on Bullock but continued to do so out of desire to derail his life because things were too good.

"It made me feel horrible," James said of the infidelities. "And I knew I would get caught eventually, and I think I wanted to get caught. I don't think, I know for a fact now what it was. It was me trying to self-sabotage my life."

He went on to say he doesn't believe he has a sex addiction in the sense that he was out trying to find any sexual partner. The infidelities, he said, were just one piece of his dysfunctional life.

"I think I do things to sabotage my life, including having extramarital affairs, texting, overworking myself, injuring myself, doing stunts and stupid things. I think I do a lot of things in my life that I shouldn't be doing that aren't conducive to being a perfect husband, you know, and the affairs are just one of them."

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Sandra Bullock Snapshots

©BAUER-GRIFFIN.COM Jesse James and his daughter Chandler return from a trip to the Southern United States. Was Jesse there to finalize his divorce, or were Jesse and Chandler visiting Sandra Bullock and her adopted baby Louis Bardo? EXCLUSIVE May 13, 2010 Job: 100513NB2 Los Angeles, California www.bauergriffin.com www.bauergriffinonline.com

CHRIS/bauergriffinonline.com

Sandra Bullock Snapshots

In this publicity image released by ABC, correspondent Vicky Mabrey, left, is shown with Jesse James, husband of actress Sandra Bullock during an interview for "Nightline," on Wednesday May 12, 2010 in Long Beach, Calif. The interview will air on Tuesday, May 25, at 11:35 p.m. EST on ABC. (AP Photo/ABC, Patrick Wymore)

Sandra Bullock Snapshots

Sandra and Jesse Snapshots

Sandra Bullock Snapshots

Tags: jesse james, nightline, sandra bullock

Comments

(421)

Wednesday 26 May

By Patti

Vote down Vote up Report this

Agreed. Well said!

By JD

your wrong, its perfectly natural for a man to desire beautiful women. Its a similar reason to why women desire to marry rich men.

So dont get your panties in a bunch, and while your at it, check your claws at the door.

By JOE

I AM NOT AS WELL KNOWN JESS/SANDRA BUT I HAD A SITUATION IN MY LIFE MY MISTAKE...MYSELF AND MY WIFE WORK THINGS OUT...TODAY WE HAVE A WONDERFUL LITTLE BOY AND A GREAT MARRIAGE...I THINK MARRIAGE IS IMPORTANT I LIKE TO SEE THE TWO OF THEM WORK THINGS OUT IF THEY CAN..IT'S SO HARD FOR THEM TO HAVE SOME TIME TO THEM SELF'S THE NEWS AND THE MEDA IS MORE DISTRUCTIVE THEN
ANYTHING JESS COULD HAVE EVER DONE...FIND THE LOVE THAT GOT YOU TOGETHER IN THE FIRST PLACE WORK THINGS OUT...IT'S WORTH IT

By Mike

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The pain of Physical & mental abuse continues after the body has healed from the bruises. I carry my issues & its been 40 years. Everyone envies me & thinks I have a charmed life. I make 6 figures, own my own business, I Have a super sucessful wife who makes 250 a year. I have an awesome life for the most part. We have no kids because I feel like a loser inside & am always waiting for my world to collapse because I feel I am not worthy of it. I feel if I have a kid I iwll be found out for sure & everyone will see the white trash kid that I feel I still am. I still do not feel good enough to meet others standards & probally never will. Yes I have forgiven those that hurt me my whole life as a child, but the trauma will not go away.

By Seal Beach Dude

Vicki, clearly never been a victom!?! You Chill Woman. I hope it all works out for everyone involved. Jesse needs to walk the talk from now on. His kids are wonderful and they seem to love Sandy. Sandy, give a brother a second chance, really! You know you two are in love. God Bless you both. Seal Beach Dude

By justyna

just like with or parents sisters or friends ,brothers we dont get involved with things like that, people fight they have problems and lots of time they make up and than what? some times we look bad becouse of or openinated ways. God is God he is just jesse............................................. with love justyna

By themeeker

Highest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

Wow, he sounds like the male equivalent of Linzey Loman blaming everyone else for his problems...and I still don't care.

By bigtinylittle

Losers like these two get way more attention than they deserve and end up with an unfounded sense of entitlement. They're addicted to fame and what it can get them. In his case, sex with other 'women' only fed his previously non-existent ego.

By howardfrankfort

The way my parents treated me as a child caused me to type this post. I apologize to my family and anyone I may have hurt by typing this post. And I know the media will have a feeding frenzy because I typed this post. We all know they love a train wreck.

By tinyfirecracker

Whatever! Man up and take the blame for what you did. Poor little victim! Waaaaah!

Although, on second thought - this may be the most productive thing you've ever done as it forced Sanda to move on.

By inhisgripfam

I totally agree. My parents were both horribly abused as children but NEVER let it affect the way they parented. No excuses, Jesse. YOU made the choice to cheat, not your parents. Grow up.

By Linda

Why is it everytime someone gets in trouble be it they cheat on their spouses or get in trouble with the law its always the fault of the parents. IU believe that alot of children are abused but I know there are alot of children that are not and they get in trouble. I wish people would start taking responsibility for there own actions.

By You have my vote

I agree with you 100%. It is time that people from all walks of life take full responsibility for their actions. It is not their parents fault, it is not the fault of society. It is YOUR fault so man up to it. Jesse, you did wrong, you got caught and you are now suffering the consequences. Time for you to move on bud the same way Sandra is. Change your ways and turn your life around.

By d

Abuse does affect everything in your life but you have to set your own 'set of morals'.

I know abuse way too well but never 'cheated on my mate', so it is 'a choice that you make in life', 'to do or not' and abuse may influence some things that you do in life but you can't let it 'destroy the rest of your life'.

By Dave

Oh booo hooo now we know why he acts like a nut Jesse found someone to blame but himself My daddy abused me BOOO HOOOO

By Greg

Try it see if you like it!!!

What a pansy.

By Val

A lot of people are abused in their childhood but using it as an excuse to habitually cheat on your adoring wife is ridiculous. If you even felt the slightest amount of guilt while you were screwing the other women - you should have stopped. You had the ultimate wife and threw it all away for a skanky piece of garbage. Unfortunately now that's probably the only kind of woman who'll date you now.

By Marix

Sob, sob, WHO wasn't beaten by their parent? MANY of us were, but that doesn't excuse bad behavior as an adult, you still know right from wrong. Get over it Jesse and stop making excuses for being a lying, cheating creep. You knew right from wrong and decided to have sex with ther women. You are ONLY sorry you got caught and it came out and you're losing business money. That's all you're trying to do, up your imagine now because of losing money, crying on national TV, "poor me". Get over yourself.

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